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Six members of the Wesleyan community have accepted grants through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, a prestigious international academic exchange program that offers graduates, graduate students, and young professionals opportunities to study, research, or teach English abroad in over 140 countries. During the 2024-25 academic year, this year’s cohort — which includes Melanie Cham ’24, Eliot Kimball ’24, Sophie Mann-Shafir ’22, Daisy Montoya ’24, Simon Worth ’24, and Joanna Paul ’18 — brings their skills, interests, and curiosity to a far-flung geography spanning Argentina to India to Madagascar. The prestige of Fulbright experiences helps open doors to exploration and opportunities…

Despite the completion of a major project like the renovation of the Frank Center for Public Affairs, there is still work to be done on Wesleyan’s campus. Physical Plant, the team responsible for operations and maintenance of Wesleyan buildings and grounds, continues to make significant progress on many of the projects that will allow for deeper student learning and experience at Wesleyan. Alan Rubacha, associate vice president of facilities, said all projects are on schedule and on budget. Here are the latest updates on Wesleyan’s ongoing major construction projects: New Science Building The 197,000-square-foot New Science Building is set to…

During Robin Wall Kimmerer’s first days as a university student, a professor asked why she wanted to study botany. She replied that she wanted to understand why goldenrod and asters — flowering plants cultivated by Native Americans — looked so beautiful together, a perspective influenced by her upbringing as a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. The professor ridiculed her, dismissing her comment as unscientific. “Your way of thinking is not welcome here,” she recalled him saying. Years later, Kimmerer’s way of thinking received a standing ovation from students during their first days at Wesleyan. In addition to being a…

Free speech. Admissions. On-campus crises. All these issues and others contribute to the growing impact of legal concerns for colleges and universities. Today higher education leaders need to not only know the law, but how to prepare for legal challenges. In response to this new climate, colleges and universities have employed a rising number of legal experts. Since 1985, the membership of the National Associate of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) has doubled, from around 2,400 members to over 5,000 in 2022, according to Andrews Professor of Economics, Emerita, Joyce P. Jacobsen, who recently co-authored “All the Campus Lawyers: Litigation,…

Navy veteran Orion Cox ’28 once viewed higher education as a box to check before beginning his post-military career. After completing two Warrior-Scholar Project educational boot camps, however, his perspective changed. “Now I view college as a place to grow and become a better version of yourself,” Cox, 24, said. A Seattle native, Cox spent five years in the military as an air traffic controller to pay for his education, but he dreams of becoming a composer. He said he’d love to score an animated feature film one day. He enrolled at Wesleyan and will begin studying music in the…

A few years ago, New York Times investigative reporter Hannah Dreier ’08 obtained a swath of data on the locations of children immigrating to the United States without their parents — a demographic easily targeted by unscrupulous employers. She dialed around in search of anything that could point to whether these children were working underage, but each call resulted in the same conclusion: no one claimed to know anything. So, she put down her phone, hopped on a plane, and traveled where the data pointed her. Within a day or two at each location, she found and interviewed migrant children…

For each of the last six years, thousands of members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community and supporting allies have descended on Main Street for a day of celebration and community-building at Middletown PrideFEST. Led by Wesleyan’s Office for Equity & Inclusion, University community members and several students from Wesleyan’s Upward Bound program walked in this year’s parade. Wesleyan is a co-founding partner of Middletown Pride, having participated each of the seven years it has run, alongside Russell Library, and the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce. Middlesex Health has also joined the partnership. This year, more Upward Bound students joined Wesleyan’s march…

The midday sun beamed through barred windows into a high-ceilinged auditorium at Cheshire Correctional Institution as Andrew “Duke” Dickson ’24 donned a red gown and took to a centerstage pulpit. He was moments from receiving the college degrees he’d earned through Wesleyan’s Center for Prison Education in front of an audience that included his mother, son, professors, other incarcerated individuals, and, seated stage right, President Biden’s education secretary. But first, Dickson reflected on the trials, transformation, and good fortune that led to him and the 18 other incarcerated individuals receiving degrees to this day. “It is not that we are…

By Sarah Parke The votes for the 2024 alumni-elected trustee election are in, and the University will add three new members to its Board of Trustees as three current members complete their terms. Joining Wesleyan’s Board of Trustees for a three-year term, effective July 1, are Livia Wong McCarthy ’81, Jayvan (“Jay”) Mitchell ’11, and Aaron Veerasuntharam ’14. Each year, Wesleyan alumni, including graduates from the senior class, elect three of their peers to serve on the Board. McCarthy, Mitchell, and Veerasuntharam will join a 36-member board that is responsible for ensuring the University fulfills its mission, sustains its values,…

By Maxx McNall The spring season brings many things—blooming flowers, temperatures fit for a Frisbee toss with a friend on Andrus Field, and, more recently, final exams. For five of Wesleyan’s athletic programs, it’s brought something else. Championships. And lots of them. Two programs—Women’s Tennis and Men’s Crew—have gone undefeated and are amid deep postseason runs. Three won NESCAC championships and five took home the Little Three Championship. 2024 was truly title time for Wesleyan’s spring programs. Women’s Tennis The University’s Women’s Tennis is undefeated for the second time in three seasons and on the way to its fifth consecutive…

As the 2023-2024 academic year wound down to a close, there were a bevy of on-campus student and faculty events that were quintessential Wesleyan. Here is a selection of photos from some of them. Psychology Department Poster Session Students and faculty gathered in Beckham Hall on April 25 for the annual Psychology Poster Session. The event, which was in-person for the first time in three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, featured 28 posters, with 54 presenters across 10 advisors. “We have a lot of students who are working in labs with faculty, and sometimes students present work that they…

Like many universities, when classes end students are given a handful of days to prepare for their final examinations each semester. At Wesleyan, they’re also given the chance to take some time to enjoy their months of effort with a day of live music, little treats, delicious food, carnival games, and fair rides at the annual Spring Fling on May 9. This year, the Office of Student Involvement and Concert Committee brought a bundle of artists to campus to perform for Wesleyan’s hard-working student body. The day was headlined by shows from rapper Ferg, formerly known as A$AP Ferg, and…

Wesleyan Fulbright Fellows Embark on Global Journeys of Curiosity

Updates on New Science Building, Integrative Arts Lab Construction

At Common Read, Author Asks Class of 2028 to Reimagine Relationships with the Earth

Jacobsen Maps Out Legal Landscape of College Campuses in New Book

Student-Veteran Says Warrior-Scholar Project Changed His View on Education

Dreier ’08 on Pulitzer Prize-Winning Investigative Series

Wesleyan Staff, Upward Bound Students Join Middletown PrideFEST

At Center for Prison Education Commencement, Enduring Change Through Higher Education

Alumni Elect McCarthy, Mitchell, and Veerasuntharam to Board of Trustees

Cardinals Soar in Spring Conference Competitions

Gallery: Semester Event Wrap-Up

Gallery: Students Enjoy Spring Fling 2024 Festivities